A Nova Scotia Canadian has set the record for the most university degrees in history by a woman, adding a 32nd degree to her collection this year.
“There was an offhand comment in one of the Avengers movies. Bruce Banner [The Hulk] said he had seven doctorates. That’s why I’m now determined to have eight,” laughed Dr. Stephanie Attwater of Nova Scotia in an interview with Global News on Thursday.
In early December, the 42-year-old Canadian received top honors when she was named Woman of the Year by the World Record Academy, one of the world's largest organizations honoring world records.
Just a few weeks earlier, the woman had officially certified her 32 university degrees, including three doctorates in physical medicine and rehabilitation, osteopathic clinical rehabilitation and naturopathy, which she earned between May 2004 and June 2023.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY WORLD RECORD ACADEMY
Parallel to her studies, the doctoral student has her own clinic, which offers her the flexibility she needs to combine her everyday working life and her ongoing studies.
“I am currently completing my doctoral thesis in natural sciences and clinical nutrition. My next areas of expertise will be health, psychology and clinical psychology, then pharmacology,” she told English-language media.
Her passion for education was born after she suffered a serious car accident during her freshman year of college, which resulted in severe brain damage that required her to relearn how to read, speak, and do math. Doctors also warned her that she could develop dementia later in life.
“They thought [il y a 20 ans] that after a brain injury there was absolutely nothing you could do to recover from it. I was determined to make sure it wasn't true,” she continued to Global News.
It was one of her patients, Trish McManus, who reportedly spent months convincing her to apply to various world record organizations.
“If someone can do all this behind the scenes and at the same time help people in their work as an osteopath… then I think to myself, 'People need to know this, Stephanie,'” the patient told The English Media.